A Cosmological Reformulation of Anselm’s Proof That God Exists

503 Pages·2022·3.484 MB·English

by  Richard Campbell

A Cosmological Reformulation of Anselm’s Proof That God Exists
Richard Campbell - 978-90-04-18461-9
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Anselm Studies and Texts
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Giles E.M. Gasper (University of Durham)
Editorial Board
Marcia Colish (Yale University)
Jay Diehl (Long Island University)
Bernd Goebel (University of Fulda)
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Lauren Mancia (Brooklyn College, CUNY)
Eileen Sweeney (Boston College)
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A Cosmological
Reformulation of Anselm’s
Proof That God Exists
By
Richard Campbell
LEIDEN | BOSTON
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The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available online at https://catalog.loc.gov
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ISSN 2468-4333
ISBN 978-90-04-47150-4 (hardback)
ISBN 978-90-04-18461-9 (e-book)
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To the Honourable Kenneth John Crispin, QC, PhD
whose insistence on factual evidence provoked the writing of this book
∵
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Potest tamen etiam rationabilis mens proficiens a parvis ad maiora et
a visibilus ad invisibilia prevenire ad intellectum perfectiorem.
It is possible that a rational mind … by advancing from a knowl-
edge of small to a knowledge of greater things, and from things
visible to things invisible, may attain to an increasingly perfect
understanding.
Origen; De Principiis, IV, 10
∵
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Contents
Preface xi
1 Introducing Anselm’s Original Proof 1
1 Anselm’s Objectives in Writing the Proslogion 3
2 Anselm’s Quest 7
3 Faith Seeking Understanding 12
4 The Standard Misinterpretation of How Anselm Proves that
God Exists 16
5 The Invalidity of the Standard Misinterpretation of
Anselm’s Proof 22
6 The Three-Stage Structure of Anselm’s Proof 26
2 Introducing a Cosmological Reformulation of Anselm’s Proof 37
1 Inferring That Something Is in Reality from Its Being
in the Understanding 37
2 Discovering That Anselm’s Proof Is a Cosmological Argument 41
3 Objections to Interpreting Anselm’s Stage Three as a
Metaphysical Argument 45
4 A Three-Stage Cosmological Proof of the Existence of God 50
5 Inferring That Something Is So Good That Nothing Greater
Could Be Thought 56
6 A Note to the Reader 63
3 The Quintessential Features of Anselm’s Original Proof 65
1 The Provenance of Anselm’s Indefinite Description 66
2 The Universality of Anselm’s Indefinite Description 70
3 A Definition of “greater than” 75
4 That It Is Possible That Something Is Such That a Greater Cannot
Be Thought 81
5 Justifying Anselm’s Introduction of That-Than-Which-a-Greater-
Cannot-Be-Thought 85
6 Being Possible 90
7 The Relation of Thinking to Understanding 95
8 The Logic of Conceivability 100
4 A Cosmological Reformulation of Stage One of Anselm’s Proof 109
1 The Development of Modern Cosmology 110
2 The Inflationary Model 115
3 The Question of Whether the Universe Had a Beginning 118
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viii Contents
4 The Emergence of Things in the Universe 120
5 Inferring the First Premise of a Cosmological Reformulation
of Anselm’s Proof 122
6 Existing Contingently 125
7 What Exists Contingently Is Greater When It Exists than When
It Does Not 127
8 Deducing Anselm’s Stage One Conclusions 131
9 Deducing a Stronger Version of Anselm’s Stage One Conclusion 136
10 Comparing Anselm’s Stage One Argument with This
Cosmological Reformulation 141
5 Three Arguments Vindicating Anselm’s Inferring Reality
from Thought 145
1 The Argument Based on Beginning to Exist 146
2 Some Reflections on This Argument 152
3 The Constructive Dilemma Based on Existing Contingently 157
4 Some Reflections on Existing with a Beginning 161
6 A Cosmological Reformulation of Stage Two of Anselm’s Proof 163
1 Discerning the Premise of Anselm’s Original Stage Two 164
2 Deriving the Premise of Stage Two from the Reformulated Stage
One Conclusion 170
3 Deducing the Interim Conclusion of Stage Two 174
4 Deducing Anselm’s Actual Stage Two Conclusion 179
7 Sinking the Lost Island: Anselm’s Alternative Stage Two
Argument 181
1 Gaunilo’s Misunderstanding of Anselm’s Stage One Argument 182
2 Introducing Gaunilo’s Lost Island 183
3 Assessing Gaunilo’s Parody 184
4 Amending Gaunilo’s Inferences to Mimic Anselm’s 188
5 Anselm’s First Reason for Rejecting Gaunilo’s Parody 189
6 Amending Gaunilo’s Description of the Lost Island 194
7 Anselm’s Second Reason for Rejecting Gaunilo’s Parody 195
8 Anselm’s Third Reason for Rejecting Gaunilo’s Parody 201
9 What Could Not Be Thought to Have a Beginning or an End 206
10 Generalizing Anselm’s Refutation of Gaunilo’s Parody 213
8 Anselm’s Theological Stage Three Argument 216
1 The Two-Argument Interpretation of Anselm’s Original
Stage Three 217
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Contents ix
2 The Provenance of the Second Reason in Anselm’s Original
Stage Three 219
3 The Role of the First Reason in Anselm’s Original
Stage Three Argument 221
4 Deriving the Second Reason in Anselm’s Original
Stage Three Argument 228
5 Showing That Stage Three Is Where Anselm Proves That
God Exists 233
6 Deducing Anselm’s Two Conclusions as Proven Truths 243
7 That God Exists Maximally 251
8 Anselm’s Reiteration of His Conclusions 252
9 Anselm’s Cosmological Argument That Only God Could Not Be
Thought Not to Exist 256
1 Anselm’s Criteria Which Determine What Can Be Thought Not
to Exist 257
2 Anselm’s Defence of His Use of “Cannot Be Thought” 261
3 Anselm’s Argument That All But One Can Be Thought Not
to Exist 264
4 Anselm’s Struggles to Understand Eternity 267
5 Justifying Anselm’s Uniqueness Premise 285
6 Identifying That Which Is Eternal 287
10 A Cosmological Reformulation of Stage Three of Anselm’s Proof 291
1 Reviewing the Cosmological Reformulation of Stages One
and Two 292
2 Proving That Something Exists Supremely 293
3 Deducing an Analogue of Anselm’s Crucial Stage Three Premise 300
4 Validating Anselm’s Cosmological Argument in Reply IV 302
5 Introducing a Dilemma to Justify Anselm’s Crucial Stage
Three Premise 303
6 Deducing Anselm’s Crucial Stage Three Premise on
Theological Grounds 306
7 Deducing Anselm’s Crucial Stage Three Premise on
Cosmological Grounds 308
8 Justifying Anselm’s Crucial Stage Three Premise in the Strongest
Possible Way 316
9 Deducing Anselm’s Stage Three Conclusions 318
10 An Alleged Counter-Example to Anselm’s Stage Three Premise 320
11 Comparing the Cosmological Reformulation of Anselm’s Proof
with the Original 324
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x Contents
11 Anselm’s unum argumentum and the Identity of God 332
1 Introducing the Criteria Which Anselm’s unum argumentum
Must Satisfy 333
2 Interpreting Anselm’s unum argumentum as a Syllogism 335
3 Identifying the God Whose Existence Is Proven in Proslogion III 339
4 Discerning the Overall Plot of the Proslogion 344
5 Interpreting Anselm’s unum argumentum as a Phrase 347
6 Interpreting Anselm’s unum argumentum as a Proposition 359
7 Identifying Anselm’s unum argumentum 362
8 Confirming the Identification of Anselm’s unum argumentum 367
9 Referring to God 374
12 The Contemporary Relevance of Anselm’s Metaphysical Views 380
1 Two Conceptions of Existing 381
2 The Denial That Existing Has Degrees of Intensity 384
3 The Rise of Physicalism 389
4 Anselm’s Understanding of Abilities 392
5 Anselm’s Account of Understanding 396
6 Anselm’s Views on Existing Contingently 401
7 The Significance of Kant’s Refutation of the Ontological
Argument 404
8 A Proposal That Everything Exists Contingently 407
9 Existing Necessarily 415
13 Some Concluding Reflections 418
1 Considering Some Implications of Anselm’s Proof 419
2 How Something Described in Terms of Thought Can Be Proven
to Exist 424
3 Anselm’s Understanding of “Faith” 430
4 Anselm’s Journey from Belief to Understanding 434
5 The Limits of Understanding 440
6 Understanding Spacetime as Permeated by an Eternal God 446
Appendix A: Validating Anselm’s Claim That It Is Greater to Be
in Reality than Not 453
Appendix B: The Deduction of the Three Stages of the Cosmological
Reformulation of Anselm’s Proof 461
Bibliography 480
Index 488
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